Sharon's plans, made concrete

[Classical_Liberal]

Sharon's plans, made concrete

By Nicole Gaouette | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

JERUSALEM – As a 13-year-old in 1930s Palestine, Arik Scheinerman sat through inky black nights armed with his own engraved Circassian dagger, helping to guard his village fields from Arab attack. "When you work for something," his father told him, "it's your duty to protect it."


As an Israeli army commander after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Arik expanded on his father's advice, establishing a Jewish presence throughout the West Bank. "Survival ... depended on 'facts,' actually building on the land and actually defending it," he later wrote. Arik Scheinerman's name has changed - he's known today as Ariel Sharon - but Israel's prime minister still seems faithful to the lessons of his youth.

In Mr. Sharon's eyes, security means holding the land. He is making Israel's contentious barrier project part of that goal. Originally conceived to protect Israelis from Palestinian militants, the barrier's winding route through the West Bank suggests that it's also meant to buffer Israel from attack by Arab countries to the east.

Yet in using the barrier to protect Israel from regional threats, analysts say Sharon is exposing his country to profound internal danger. They say the barrier, along with Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories, is tightening Israel's hold on the territories to such an extent that it could torpedo a two-state solution to this conflict. With the Palestinian birthrate set to make Jews a minority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in a decade or so, Israel will soon face a choice: whether to be a Jewish state or a democratic one........

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1114/p08s01-wome.html

[Jack Rabbit]

1. A problem

Yet in using the barrier to protect Israel from regional threats, analysts say Sharon is exposing his country to profound internal danger. They say the barrier, along with Israeli settlement in the Palestinian territories, is tightening Israel's hold on the territories to such an extent that it could torpedo a two-state solution to this conflict. With the Palestinian birthrate set to make Jews a minority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in a decade or so, Israel will soon face a choice: whether to be a Jewish state or a democratic one.

Actually, Israel can remain a Jewish and democratic, she just can't do it and swallow the West Bank and Gaza at the same time.

Israel's population is about 6.5 million, of which about 80% (5.2 million) is Jewish. Israeli Arabs may enjoy enqual rights, but the national culture will still remain Jewish. If Israel annexes the territories in some way, then suddenly Isreal's population rises by about 3.7 million of which only about 200,000 are Jews. Thus, in a Eretz Israel, only 53% of the population is Jewish. As the article points out, the higher birthrate among Arabs to Jews will mean that Jews will be a minority in Eretz Israel.

If Israel wants to remain a Jewish democracy, then it is in her interests to give up the expansionist policies of the political right, make peace with the Palestinians and permit a fully independent and sovereign Palestine emcompassing the West Ban and Gaza to come into existence. Otherwise, in order to remain Jewish, Israel will have to resort to measures that are violations of democratic ideals and quite likely crimes against humanity.

Eretz Israel is a losing proposition for Israel's Jews. We should hope that the Israeli people will soon reject the right wing that puts Israel's democratic ideals at risk.

[Lurking Dem]

2. Jack

It's Eretz Yisrael and I would guess upwards of 90% of Jews worldwide use the term to refer to "The Land (ie Nation) of Israel" not some expansionist vision including northern Jordan, Syria, et al.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. My defense

The term Eretz Israel is found frequenty on the web, often on such sites as Ahavat-Isreal. It is frequently used to designate Israel and the Palestinian Territories, as if the latter were incorporated into the former.

In other words, I have been using Eretz Isreal as a synomym for Greater Israel.

Am I wrong in doing this? Please let me know. If so, my apologies and I will henceforth use Greater Israel to the exclusion of Eretz Israel to denote the misconception held by Mr. Elon and others that there is or ought to be but a single state west of the Jordan and that it should be Jewish.

[Lurking Dem]

5. Yes, you are wrong.

Thank you for understanding. "Greater Israel" or "Israeli expansionism" are more accurate descriptions of what you mean to say.

[meti57b]

4. exactly!

Eretz Yisrael means only "The Land (Nation) of Israel". Nothing more. I would also like to see a stop to the misuse of the term the chosen, particularly its misuse on this message board. As you explained a while back, the chosen is best explained to the uninformed, in terms of "chosen to wash the dishes".